My Kids Want to be Part of this Online School

Well...okay...maybe.

More accurately, the one I hoped would agree, won't; the one I least expected to show interest, did. So with just a few days left to put together a workspace for both of my "students" that would be organized and creative, I did what every broke and frantic mother does: I went to the thrift store.

I am still trying to reconcile myself to the reality that I have allowed the 9th grader the option to try this program. He's on the fence about it and I am trying not to lead him in his decision. And why should I, after all? An unhappy kid makes for an unhappy mom!

Still, today's Learning Coach subject gave me comfort and even a little insight. One one hand, my sixth grade girl should transition into this program with ease (I keep saying that so I hope I'm right). She should be able to slide right into a virtual classroom with some good space preparation that helps with organization and comfortable seating. With a little over 30 days to prepare for the boy's arrival, I would hope that I'll have familiarized myself with my new role by using Annika as the proverbial guinea pig in our new classroom: Welcome to the re-invented Tolman home.

In the scientific method approach, she really makes an excellent test subject–the perfect control! I could evaluate her adaptability to her surroundings, monitor her progress, record my observations, and apply my findings on Colter.

"Seriously?" I found myself asking out loud.

"Why not?" Yeah, I even answer myself.

"Because you suck at process." Yep, I got me there.

So, there I was, staring at the living room and wondering what the heck I was going to do. I'm not a genie so snapping my fingers won't yield anything. It certainly never got me anywhere in the past either. I envied some of those examples we saw during the session–pictures of lovely, dedicated spaces that surely encouraged thinking and creativity. There were other types of spaces too but the girl sitting in front of a small folding TV tray did not look comfortable and we sold our trampoline years ago.

Making Space: Places and Areas for Home Learning

I checked online for other ideas and found a dizzying array of suggestions. I skipped the ones from those cutesy blogs. I don't do frou-frou. It's not my style and my kids would revolt. 

At the end of the day, I went to bed with a simple idea. That six-foot folding table in the garage would have to be a good start.

If I build it, they will come.

OMG! 25 to 30 Hours per Week?!?

I'm on my second day of attending learning coach sessions (three, to be exact) and my two children graciously sat in on the morning session with me.

Round One:

Making Sense: You have Permission to Step Outside the Box

I am told that I have permission to do anything and construct a learning environment that is as flexible as it is mobile. I doubt that I can really do anything I want but I do like the whole notion that it could be anywhere. But wait...how much time do I have to commit? 25 to 30 hours per week, you say? Whatever happened to think smarter, not harder?

Here's a picture of my misguided delusion: I block out a certain number of hours in the morning for their schooling. I imagine being there to try and help but that they will be working through their lessons on their own. I'll let them have a break or two in between, feed them snacks and lunch, and offer incentives to encourage them to accomplish all or part of their workload goals. When the "school day" is done, I will be able to move on to my other commitments or my "me" time–at the very least, step outside of this box for a moment to take a deep breath and meditate.

 Round Two:

The Learning Coach-Teacher Relationship 

My son and I were at the high school to get his schedule squared away and to meet briefly with the special ed teacher so I missed the first 30 minutes of the session. Colter's virtual classes with IDVA start on September 26 and I would prefer that he gets right back on the bike and continue to learn while waiting for his enrollment process to be completed. As my son's "mentor"  in his education, I'm supposed to be his support and cheerleader, right?  I feel wholly inadequate for the role. We spend more time butting heads and accomplishing the most basic of tasks is a painfully slow experience.  So maybe it's a good thing that his start date is delayed by a month. It would give me an opportunity to ease into these rather big shoes and see how well I adapt to becoming a "learning coach" to Annika. I just hope to be prepared for Colter's arrival into this home-bound system by the time he starts his online coursework.

On the top of the list of teacher expectations for parents is communication. Not too far behind is honesty. That means I have to sharpen my communication skills. I am neither good in seeking out help nor do I play well as a good listener. Well, that has to change, surely? I created a new group titled K12 in my computer address book and have started to compile contact information on any K12 or IDVA individuals that I have spoken to. They're bound to come in handy one day. I may have to consider a huge sign that says COMMUNICATE–not so much for my kids but as a reminder to me. I'd like to think that I have developed a good parent-teacher relationship over the years of monitoring my son's IEP with his teachers but upon reflection, I know that I could have been better–and that, I have to be honest about.

Round Three:

The 15-Minute High School Mentor

My husband and I went out for drinks with some relatives. It was happy hour at the Garage and I had hoped to be back by the time this session started. I have these silly unrealistic expectations. Well into DH's third beer and my steadily refilled non-alcoholic iced tea, 8pm came and went. My high school student is not starting until September 26th so I'm going to give myself some slack and attend another session later. It was great to be able to step outside of the house for the evening and relax in the company of good friends sans the children. This is my calm before the storm.

I am Committed...Sorta

This morning, I attended my first Learning Coach session:

K–8 Making the Change: Shifting Paradigms from Traditional School to the Online School

Anni even sat in for part of the session. 

Colter has chosen to sleep. 

Okay, so I made out with a 50% success rate but we move on and I did learn something.

1. I have ADD too. Granted, this is not news to me but the whole notion of sitting through an hour staring at a monitor made me realize (again) how much my son and I are alike. So I did what any self-respecting ADD person did: I turned the speakers as loud as it could go, I made coffee, walked around, and wiped down the sliding glass doors.

2. The traditional rigid "walls" of a brick and mortar school is more flexible with an online program. That was exciting to me and I'm sure that Anni found that appealing too as she walked around the house listening while she went about brushing her hair.

3. On the flipside, I need to be even more involved as a parent (and learning coach slash teacher) with their education. That terrified me.

4. I could use that very large sliding door I just diligently cleaned as a white board.

5. I didn't run screaming in the other direction.

Surely, line 5 has to count for something.

We ended the session, Anni made her scrambled egg breakfast, I made my oatmeal and resumed my research on the program.

I called K12 and spoke to John about Colter's enrollment status. With any luck, Lance Hopper, my PAL, will call me by today. School starts in two days here in town. I don't have to worry about Anni because she was approved over the weekend and will start on the 29th of August.  But Colter, who has an IEP, has yet to be "approved" and a pending status for approval can also mean a possible rejection.

I am leaving that to the higher powers. But I may have to send him off to school in the meantime. 

Thank God!

My Foray Into Alternative Schooling

Next week, school starts.

Well...maybe for everyone else in the valley.

Colter and Annika are victims to my inherent tardiness and persistent procrastination when I decided to explore an alternative option for their education...last week. I wish I could say that the epiphany was mine. Instead, it was actually Jud who, after seeing a TV ad, mentioned that maybe Anni would be interested in it. One thought led to another and next thing I knew, I was on the internet enrolling both children for the Idaho Virtual Academy.

They were out of town visiting a cousin for a week in Montana so they didn't know about my grand scheme. I'm not sure that I knew what my grand scheme was either, for that matter.

The idea had merits though I have never considered home-school as an option mostly because I considered myself ill-equipped for the role of a teacher.

And to my own kids no less.

Surely, this could only lead to a certain degree of bloodshed.

I pressed forward in, more or less, state of denial. While I did attend an Ask-a-Grad webinar and and in-person information seminar in Idaho Falls, I ignored the calls from the K12 organization. I skimmed the follow up emails, and I completely disregarded the important email about the upcoming enrollment deadline for the August 24th start date.

The only redeeming aspect of my behavior was that I graciously offered this as an option to my children instead of telling them that it's my way or the highway.

Annika was, surprisingly, an easy sell. Though hesitant at first because she didn't want to miss out on her friends who will follow her into 6th grade, the information we received during the seminar swayed her. She's a great student, highly motivated and agreeable. I have no doubt that she would fit into this program seamlessly. I did ask her what it was that made her decide to choose the program.

"I liked that I'll be able to learn more stuff." she replied.

Colter is the polar opposite of his younger sibling. At 14 and entering high school, he struggled  academically from an early age. Into his 5th grade year, we belatedly realized that he had ADD and Tourettes Syndrome, a tic disorder, that we had wrongly attributed to allergies and sinus issues for a very long time. Even then, we resisted the label and made only half-hearted attempts to put him on medication.

Fast forward to the present day.

While we know a little more about his condition, we have felt like unwittingly incompatible parents to a baby that was  dropped at our doorstep. We tried all sorts of logical avenues that failed to bring any real improvement–not just to his academic achievements–but to our relationship with this very special but seemingly misunderstood child of ours. In short, we've failed to figure out what makes our son tick and at this point, I was willing to try one more thing that I have yet to (or dared to) try before: home school.

So....

I have one that's eager and the other–not so much. Today, I received the approval notification for Annika. She starts on August 29th and we are excited for her materials to arrive. Because she has no special needs, her coursework is pretty standard. Colter will start out at the local high school for the next few weeks. I hope that this will make the transition into virtual academia a little easier for him (and for me).

In the meantime, I continue to push forward and check on Colter's status which may take a little longer to process because of his IEP needs. I am navigating my way through the online school's website to familiarize myself with a dizzying amount of information. I compile a list of questions to address with our school liason.

I tell myself that I can do this, take a deep calming breath, and pray for the best.

Dear Jud

I try to refrain from subjects that raise my ire, if not my eyebrows. Politics is one of them but it keeps finding me in-spite of my efforts. My liberal tendencies in a blood-red state apparently makes me a moving target. I wrote this to the DH in response to his recent email to me about what he had described as "missing trillions" that the Federal Reserve lost.

"Lost?" I repeated.

How does one lose 9 trillion dollars, exactly? I've lost my wallet numerous time–he can vouch for that. I mindlessly left behind a few hundred dollars on the passenger seat of my unlocked car once. I've even lost a few dollars here and there to slot machines. But I must admit, losing that much money is staggering to the imagination.

I checked my inbox but I never did get that email. Knowing Jud's recent foray into ultra-right-wing politics, I was, nevertheless, curious about what his buddies have managed to feed him now and so I looked into this 9 trillion dollar mystery and found only that someone has been brewing another batch of red-tea logic:

Okay, this is old news but here we go again...

I'm always curious about the stuff that you guys keep tossing my way so here's a little fact checking:

When did this happen? Pre-Obama Administration (in case you guys are holding the black man responsible) doled out approximately 9T in overnight loans to major banks starting in 2008 when the banks started to fall apart at a measly interest rate of 0.007%. Most have all been repaid but at such a low interest rate, I'd have to agree that those Wall Street banks sure got a sweet deal that they apparently weren't willing to share with the average consumer on Main Street.

As to where did all the money go? Well, I suppose you could say it went into a hole that the average population didn't get a chance to partake in but it certainly wasn't missing. The top three recipients of the golden eggs that the Federal Reserve Chickens literally pulled out from their collective behind was Merrill Lynch, Citigroup and Morgan Stanley at about 2T each. Goldman Sachs for anyone who thinks they were the primary instigator received 500 Billion. Not that I'm giving the bastards credit because that's no chump change.

The big question is why and that should be obvious. The Feds wanted to prevent a banking system collapse so it acted like the mother in denial by saying, "my babies are perfect" and tried to save them from their infantile behavior by over-compensating for their children's shortcomings. Of course, the alternative would be unthinkable because it would have put the whole global neighborhood in a tailspin because that collapse would have ruined everything that we once thought had value (like retirement funds that lost a lot of money).

Justification? To the average person, probably not much because the whole process didn't exactly "trickle" down to the rest of us. The banks don't apparently subscribe to the credit score system that we have to play by and they continue to get huge loans and mystifying interest rates still–inspite of their poor financial and moral judgement.

Do send this to Bill, Cody and anyone else who feel that the current administration has taken them down the road to perdition. I can fault Obama for having been spineless (but not anymore because he bull-dogged the debt ceiling raise amidst all the political posturing on both sides) but you can't blame all this on just one guy.

Oh, and I still love you!

Shut Down.

I've ignored my blogs...along with a whole lot of other things.  It's not like the world stood still for over five months. On the other hand, the mental back-burner is stacked with a lot of things I have pushed off to the side and I have to make a concerted effort to catch up.

It's another Memorial Weekend. The weather is sadly lacking in warmth and it seems my whining has escalated. I have lived in this sleepy (if not tired) mountain community for a decade. Today, I just want to be anywhere else but here and because I can't, I am sitting here defiant; staring down the day as it passes me by.

Of course, it does me no good. It really sucks.

Job Search.

Everybody lies.

I can't say that it's my favorite quote. On the other hand, it's true. And in the job-seeking world, it's not an exception. It's the rule.

For the most part, I have been independent for the last decade and it was a path that seemed best-suited to my personality. I worked in commissioned sales. Then when the opportunity came, I took off on my own shouldering the burden of being employer and employee. In this world, there was only one divining principle you followed in order to survive: you made your own rain.

It rained. It poured. But when the economy collapsed and our community drowned in a regrettable flood of sharply declining values tied to a housing market inventory that is projected to last the next five years, I found less and less need for my services. I held out a little longer than most but in the end, I joined the ranks of entrepreneurs looking elsewhere for a steady paycheck and reluctantly began the process of job-hunting.

Of course, the first step was to polish the resume–long forgotten under a file that I thankfully still had in my computer. I updated my work history to include my current status as owner of my own design firm and reviewed the previous jobs for relevance and accuracy. I was careful to maintain a brief, concise, single-page presentation I always believed to be more credible than the multi-page pandering I've seen in the past.

I've reviewed my share of resumes for former employers who invited me to sit in the hiring process and for my own company when the time came that I needed help. Those that went to the circular file ran the gamut from mediocre to appalling to hilarious. They verified my suspicion that unless you're a professional athlete whose stats are scrutinized by anybody and everybody, the superfluous padding on that resume is likely not worth the paper it's printed on.

Ultimately, I knew that I needed to be as straightforward as possible. I . Interviews are the final measure of how well our image holds up. Granted, there are always those who will present themselves well. But when the honeymoon is over, I would just as soon not have them look at me and wonder where that person they hired went. After all, the interview is going to determine why you want this job and how badly you want it. The best course is enthusiasm.

I turned in my resume to several potential employers: an insurance company for a sales position; the ski resort for a marketing and the school district for a paraprofessional. This is not a career objective but they don't need to know that. Sure, I wanted a rewarding position with opportunity for advancement but at this point. any job will do.

 A lie, after all, as a means to an end.